Synthesis and characterization of ionic liquids derived from fatty acids and phosphoethanolamine and their application in the food and biopharmaceutical industries

Abstract

Ionic liquids (ILs) based on fatty acids (FAs) have been considered as promising compounds, and attracted the interest of the industry and academic community because of their peculiar properties and low cost. The interesting characteristics of the ILs and their sustainable appeal, and possibly low or non-toxicity due to the natural origin of their precursors open new perspectives of applications in bioprocesses, in the development of bioproducts, or even in food processing. The present work has two main objectives. The first one is to study the synthesis of four ILs from FAs and phosphoethanolamine (PEA), a chemical with potential anticancer properties. The second one focuses on the understanding of the physicochemical and thermodynamic properties of pure ILs. PEA and FAs obtained from vegetable oils, including omega-6 and omega-9, will be used for the synthesis of novel ILs. Melting temperatures and enthalpies, mesophase forming ability, critical micellar concentration of ILs will be determined. Such characterization will be used as the basis for evaluating the application of ILs as surfactants in the development of emulsions and in the increasing of PEA based ILs solubility in oily and/or aqueous medium. It is expected in this work the obtainment of new pharmaceutical compounds in the IL form derived from PEA and FAs with improved physical properties, which may induce an increasing of their solubility in oily and aqueous media, bioavailability and eventually improved anticancer properties in comparison to pure PEA for possible applications in the food and biopharmaceutical industries.